SBEE seminar series: Leonardo Bursztyn

Disguising Prejudice: Popular Rationales as Excuses for Intolerant Expression

Abstract:  

We study the use of popular rationales to justify public anti-minority actions. Rationales to oppose minorities change some people's private opinions, leading them to take anti-minority actions even if they are not prejudiced against minorities. When these rationales become widespread, prejudiced people can pool with unprejudiced people who are persuaded, decreasing the stigma associated with anti-minority expression and enabling greater public opposition to minority groups. In a first experiment, subjects learn that a previous respondent authorized a donation to an anti-immigrant organization and then make an inference about the respondent's underlying motivations. Subjects informed that their matched respondent learned about a study claiming that immigrants increase crime rates before authorizing the donation see the respondent as less intolerant and more easily persuadable. In a second experiment, subjects learn about that same study and then choose whether to authorize a publicly observable donation to the anti-immigrant organization. Subjects who are informed that their exposure to the rationale will be publicly observable are substantially more likely to make the donation than subjects who believe that their exposure will remain anonymous. Our findings suggest that prominent public figures can lower the social cost of intolerant expression by popularizing rationales, contributing to waves of anti-minority behavior.

Speaker Bio:

Leonardo Bursztyn is a Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago and was previously an Assistant Professor of Economics at UCLA's Anderson School of Management. He uses field experiments to understand how individuals make schooling, consumption, and financial decisions, and in particular, how these decisions are shaped by individuals' social environments. His research has been published in such leading academic journals as Econometrica, the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics and the Journal of Political Economy.

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The Social, Behavioral and Experimental Economics seminar series is a joint presentation of the School of Information, the Ross School of Business and the LSA Department of Economics.